The House of Blade
by Mixer
Summary: Hailey Barnes was one of Blades first victims, before he ever become a hunter. Now she's the hunter and is determined to carve herself a place in the world.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

**1983**

Detroit 

Hailey Barnes was an 18-year-old Hispanic American with soft curves and long wavy black hair, which framed her face like a perfectly painted portrait. She had everything going for her, she was beautiful, intelligent and came from a wealthy family and could have potentially done anything she wanted.

On one particular night in late August what she wanted was a hot latte from Benny's diner, a cool wind was sending goose bumps rippling across her skin and a light drizzle was dampening her hair and attempting to flatten her coat to her sides. She was a woman with a purpose and was stalking down the street with a sway in her hips that would send men drooling with desire. Her full red lips were pouty and a red flush had crept along her cheeks from the slightly faster pace that she was walking.

Sighing Hailey gave her hair a flick and breathed the wet air, the scent was just so tantalising, there weren't many things she enjoyed more then being able to taste the dampness that accompanied rain, and that particular night she was revelling in it.

She had escaped the maids who were meant to be keeping an eye on her and flirted her way past the guard at the gate to her parents estate, all because she had a craving for one of Benny's hot lattes, she'd been sneaking out of her house for nearly three years for the pleasure of those lattes and she still didn't know exactly what Benny did to make them so different and so tasty.

Smiling and whistling a dainty tune she continued her way down the street, her parents were always smothering her with their concerns about how dangerous the streets were, how many predators there were out there waiting to pray on vulnerable young woman. Sheesh, they needed to relax a little, she wasn't even three blocks from the house most of the time and she could take care of herself, despite what they might think.

Hailey was still anticipating that latte and primping at how smart she had been to evade the house hold servants when the shadows began to flit about her. She never saw the teenage boy whose hands clasped her waist, never saw him as he used his preternatural strength to wrench her from the street and into the dark little ally.

She only felt the cold hard ground as she smacked into it, a piece of broken glass digging into her thigh. Her first coherent thought was that she was going to be raped, but that faded as the shock took her when her assailant pivoted from behind to drop on top of her. A knee to either side of her waist pressed into her tightly while his hands pinned hers to the ground.

Tears leaked from her eyes as she sobbed in pain and fear while she thrashed about, he was so strong it felt like he was crushing her wrists, and she was so terrified of what he was going to do. The fact that he looked so young actually made it worse for her, she had thought she could take care of herself, but now some little runt was going to rape or murder her and all she could do was cry.

Her body had already gone numb and when his mouth widened in a feral scream to reveal his gleaming white teeth jagged and dripping saliva all she could do was widen her eyes. His dark features blended in with the night and when he lunged for her throat she barely saw him move.

With animal like savagery she felt him tearing into her, Hailey tried to scream but all that came out was a gurgle. With astonishment she thought he'd bitten right through her throat, she was drowning in her own blood as it sprayed around him and coated her as he continued to shift and tear. It hurt like a son of a bitch and her last coherent thought was further astonishment before she blacked out was as she realised he was drinking her blood…_how very odd_…

**2006**

**October 18th **

**New York **

To an outside observer time would have seemed distorted as a young dark haired woman pitched a sword against two male turn bloods. In a controlled and coolly calculated manoeuvre she placed a back kick squarely behind her with enough force that the cracking of the vampires ribs was audibly as he smashed back into the side of a building. His head smacking back so hard that it left a trail of blood as he slid to the ground. He wouldn't be going anywhere any time soon.

With a feral grin that flashed the merest hint of her own set of gleaming fangs the young woman lunged forward with her narrow tinted silver blade. The turn blood barely moved as the blade streaked towards him and passed harmlessly over his shoulder.

In response the woman dropped the blade to lightly cut into his shoulder before darting it to the side with enough force to cleave his head from his shoulders, unfortunately he was an adept fighter himself and with a role of his head her blade once again passed harmlessly over him. As he glanced back to look at her she abandoned her blade in mid motion so that she could slip behind his guard and clasp his head on either side.

With a savage wrench she twisted until his neck broke, and continued to twist until ligaments and flesh were completely severed and she had separated his head from his body. She quirked her own head to the side so she could smile at his astonished look before a fine orange light shone against his skeleton, burning through his flesh and dissolving him to ash.

Pivoting on one foot she retrieved her blade and sheathed it within the confines of her dark ankle length leather jacket, say whatever you want about leather but it was durable in a fight and it made for a very good way to conceal machete sized weapons. In fact her entire ensemble was designed to make her a more efficient predator. Tight black leather pants, knee high black leather boots, which were mostly concealed beneath her pants and a dark tunic like shirt, which was concealed beneath high-grade tactical armour that was moulded to fit her body.

She paused for a moment as she looked down at the rapidly healing second vampire; he was a turn blood and only a grunt within the workings of Armaya but he would probably do for the purposes she had in mind. What made things even sweeter was that he was a very attractive man, he appeared in his early to mid twenties, but for all she knew he could be a hundred plus years. His light brown hair was matted with blood, but beneath his very tight shirt a well-muscled figure was obvious.

Now don't get her wrong, she could recognise him as attractive but she had no interest in men for anything sexual. In her eyes they had all been tainted.

From the left side of her jacket the dark haired woman drew out a small metal container and as she knelt beside the Armayan vampire she opened the latches and flipped it open to reveal a syringe with a silver tip that was filled with a viscous green material.

She watched in amusement as the turn blood fluttered his eyes open and tried to focus on her, his mouth opening and closing to emit a high pitched whining, "Shh baby this will only sting a lot" she whispered as she stuck the needle into his arm. His skin sizzled as the silver pierced his veins and the slight smell of burnt flesh slipped through the air.

Then he really screamed. And her sadistic streak relished in his pain, it probably wasn't necessary to lace the sedative with silver flakes but it was so much more fun and it did seem to slow a vampire's incredibly high metabolism to give the drugs a chance to work for longer. Though the first few times she had experimented with silver flakes she had mistakenly used too much and ashed them, the silver had to be in very minute amounts.

Smiling down at her newest subject she carefully replaced her needle in its case and returned it the folds of her jacket before drawing a smaller, almost surgical blade from a wrist sheath. A light pitter-patter of rain began to echo through the darkened ally as she carefully and precisely slit the vampires wrists to allow him to bleed out.

The thing about vampires was that even after they had bled out they could remain alive for quite some time, usually reverting to a more savage state, that is if they still had the strength to do so. It was also a fact that blood was a mitigating factor in a vampires regenerative abilities, the more blood you had, or the more you fed the faster you would heal…the dark haired woman had found that the reverse was also true.

And that with weaker vampires it was easier to use silver and fire to give them long lasting or even permanent scarring once they had been bled out.

With a savage smile she set about mutilating the Armayan vampire, a signature of sorts to announce her arrival in New York. She took his eyes and crippled his body, stripping him bare as she worked. Searing wounds closed as she finished with them.

Practice had made her efficient and with in fifteen minutes she had utterly devastated the poor creature, he was barely recognisable as being humanoid once she was finished with him. He was also beginning to come around which was part of her process. She had ambushed the two Armayan turn bloods in their own territory and it wouldn't be long before the blood from her victim drew others. What she had done to the vampire was horrific, but it required a final touch, so she lent down beside the crippled creature and whispered into his one perfect ear.

"Maybe you'll heal vampire, maybe you won't…but tell those Armayan filth who find you that Kali is in town" And with that she was gone.

Later that Night 

Kali, a girl who had once been known as Hailey and who had had such a bright future a head of her, slipped into the crypt like basement of an abandoned hotel. It was a secure location, which she could exit from into the main hotel, directly to the streets or into the sewer system. Better then that it had a freezer room, she didn't particularly care about the cool part, but the room was several feet of reinforced steel with a door that could be sealed and only opened from one side.

Currently that little room housed a familiar, a petite young blonde woman branded with an Armayan glyph. As she stalked through her current base of operations Kali made a cursory inspection to make sure nobody had been there why she was out and about. Her security system might not have been high tech; in fact it was as basic as could be, dust and ultraviolet powder lacing the room so that when she shifted her sight into the UV spectrum she could see any foot prints on the floors, walls or ceilings.

Simple but effective.

Satisfied that nothing had been disturbed she glanced through the small plastic window looking into the freezer compartment, originally that plastic had been glass, but Kali had replaced it when she moved in with something more difficult to break, not that it mattered much, the window being too small for anyone but a tiny baby to fit through. It was more to maintain the sound proofing then anything else.

She smiled sadistically as she observed the familiar huddled against the wall of her cell, vibrant purple and yellow bruising marked the side of her face and a poorly bandaged wrist was seeping blood. Kali had no serum to curb her blood lust; by the time she had even learned such a thing existed she had been feeding on human blood for nearly a decade so it would have been worthless to her anyway. So rather then hunt the innocent Kali had found a new way to feed, familiars, they worked for vampires, envied them, wanted to be them and did all kinds of horrific things in the name of the masters they served.

It seemed only right that it be their blood that nourished her, once every few nights she would tap a familiar's vein and feed. But hunting on a piece meal basis was inefficient, sloppy and too often it drew attention so when she was trying to stay under the radar it was a simple matter to abduct a familiar and house them until she had bled them dry.

Slitting the wrist allowed her to simply pour the blood into a vessel so she wouldn't run the risk of infecting the familiar. They usually didn't last more then a week, but it wasn't as if they were hard to find.

Sometimes Kali would even give the familiars that which they coveted the most, she would turn them; of course she would soon give them a baptism of silver or light. But for a few brief moments they would have what they desired.

Sighing almost wistfully she turned away from her dinner, deciding she could go another night before she needed to feed. Standing before a smaller set of steel doors she opened them to reveal a small armoury, in which she placed her small narrow silver sword, it was almost a hybrid of a rapier and roman short sword, being thicker then the traditional rapier so that it could be used more effectively in severing limbs.

The blade was housed beside a twin blade, and just beneath them were an assortment of various smaller blades ranging from stilettos to scalpels, the tools of her trade. Her armoury housed several hand guns with silver ammo and a single UV flash grenade, that particular weapon could prove as deadly to her as her enemies so she didn't particularly want to be carrying a number of them. It was something she had taken from a hunter that had tried to put a stake through her heart.

Closing the steel cabinet Kali stripped her jacket and placed it across the shoulders of a mannequin, laying her body armour beside it. She had modelled her weapons, her look and her entire operation on the most legendary vampire hunter in existence. Blade. Who was himself half vampire.

It was Blade who had shaped her, created her, they had only met for a few moments one August night, but those moments had defined her entire existence. Stripped her of her innocence, and made her a monster. But more then that he had made a freak on both sides of the fence, she was a full turn blood vampire with all the trapping that entailed. But she was also sired from the Daywalker's lineage, it was his bite, which had transformed her and condemned her.

There were few things that the entire vampire nation agreed on, but the eradication of Blade and every vampire of his bloodline was one of them. Since he had become a hunter himself Blade would also slay any of his bloodline that he came across which meant those few he had created in his early years were truly fucked.

Nowhere to go and no one to turn to.

Dwelling on her past and the only possible future she could expect in the long term brought sorrow to Kali, she was always so very alone. But one day that would change, she might be hunting vampires for the moment, but she had a long-term objective. A plan, something that would revolutionise the great covenant of vampire houses.

Whether he wanted it or not, Kali was going to forge the house of Blade.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I don't own anything, Yadda Yadda Yadda. I hope you enjoy, and please review.**

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**Chapter 2**

**2006 October 19th **

**New York**

Kali awoke from a light sleep, her senses instantly coming into focus and within moments she had gone from the edge of sleep to a completely alert state. A vital skill in her lifestyle.

With the coming of night she felt a burn within herself, like pin pricks of fire working their way through her system, worse in her stomach and head. Her skull was beginning to throb in sync with a heartbeat, the hunger was setting her aflame and she wondered if it had been wise to skip feeding the previous night after all.

In attempting to rise from her narrow cot she half collapsed against the wall as her stomach knotted savagely and the bloodlust rose through her. The agony was near unbearable and while her thoughts were still somewhat coherent she staggered her way towards her captive familiar. It was doubtful the girl was going to survive, but that couldn't be helped anymore.

With a feral roar she wrenched the door from its frame, her fingers painfully biting into the metal and leaving a bloody imprint.

If the familiar had been scared before she was down right terrified now, her fear was spicing the air and she made the classic mistake when dealing with a predator. A sudden movement, seeing the savagery on Kali's face the girl had tried to dart further back into her prison, but the motion broke the last of Kali's restraint and in a liquid blur she surged forward. Crossing the distance in an instant and digging her nails deeply into the girls arm as she was yanked back.

Kali embraced her then, folding the quivering flailing girl into her embrace as if she were hugging her as she sank her fangs into the girls flesh. In her haste she had missed the main artery and bitten more into muscle then blood. The small spurt of fresh hot blood that did coat Kali's lips and tongue urged her on, with a reverberating roar she reared back and struck. Her fangs slicing through flesh and arteries alike, this time the blood gushed out, in her mouth, over her face, flowing down her clothes as she fed deeply.

With the blood came a deep sense of power, of peace and as the familiars body went limp in her arms. Her heartbeat extinguished Kali was finally able to pull back, to regain her mind and control. The thirst could be a bitch sometimes.

Kali looked down at where her victim had fallen and for a moment felt a pang of regret, she may feed, she may kill, but there was no need to be so…savage…with her food. No need for the cattle to feel such terror in their last moments of life, sighing she moved beyond regret to practicality. She was going to need a new blood bank before the night was out, obviously she had been stretching her feedings further then she should have so it would be best to have some thing waiting and ready for her next rising.

She had also made quite a mess of herself, she was only wearing her tunic from the night before, but it was bloody through and through. Probably not even worth the effort of salvaging.

Sighing, she seemed to be doing a lot of that lately, Kali pulled the tunic over her head and discarded it in the cell. She now stood naked in the pale lights, her lean well toned body rippled as she moved, muscles gliding beneath the skin as blood began to dry on her flesh. There had been another reason for her particular choice of locations, despite being abandoned; the building still had running water. It had been a simple matter to tear through some piping and attached a showerhead; of course her "shower" only had one setting, ice cold with needle like stings.

It left her body paler then usual, cool as the grave despite the hot blood now coursing through her veins. With the blood washed from her skin a lingering scent of cinnamon and nutmeg clung to her, she hadn't deliberately used scented soap it had simply been one she had found in one of the hotel rooms. Once upon a time scents and perfumes and makeup and all those pretty little things had meant the world to her, now they were mostly distractions.

She slipped a dark satin blue dress over her head, the dress clung to her figure with a plunging cleavage line and slim straps that settled over her shoulders. Tactical body armour may have been more her style, but she planned to kill two birds with one stone and slip into one of the Armayan clubs so she could begin marking targets, the body armour might have given her away.

Despite being the wretches of the vampire houses, the Armayans owned a series of clubs, which bordered between posh and grunge, the well to do as well as the barely surviving could mix in relative safety.

In her body hugging dress while neglecting anything more then the essentials of make up she could blend with both sides. Just be another face in the crowd, forgotten the moment she was out of sight.

Standing in front of a mirror out of habit rather then necessity Kali applied a coat of maroon lip gloss to accentuate her lips while lightly brushing her lashes with a hybrid red and black eye mascara. The effect softened her eyes while bringing out a light shade of green in her pupils. Despite the fact she couldn't see her own reflection she knew from experience her appearance would be sufficient.

Despite her better instincts Kali left her sanctuary bereft of her arsenal, only one little weapon secreted away in the lining of her purse.

Kali's senses were assaulted by something passing for music; it was almost painfully reverberating through her body as she tried to withstand it. The press of moving bodies caused her own body temperature to spike within the confined walls of the club. The room reeked of humans and vampires alike, while the turn bloods moved impassively, showing no signs of fatigue or effort the familiars were drenched in their own sweat.

Exhaustion straining across their faces as they tried to keep pace with their counterparts. She was also uncomfortably aware of how many civilians were dancing their lives away within the clubs, neither vampire nor familiar, and if they weren't familiars they had no idea how close to death they stood.

She hadn't expected so many civilians; truthfully she hadn't really expected or prepared herself for the crush of people. By necessity she lived a solitary existence, so many people was a foreign concept. And with the violent assault on her senses by all the noise and the crushing enclosed space she was having difficulty concentrated, even more difficulty fitting in. She either had to adapt quickly or get the hell out of there before someone began paying attention to her.

She went for the latter. Despite trying to head for the exit the crush of people forced her away from the plastic floors and across the more lush red carpets, she was forced further and further from freedom until she found herself pressed against a hard wooden surface. The Bar.

She was beginning to hyperventilate, she was a vampire for fuck sake, and the crush of people was tearing her apart. It had been a mistake to try and infiltrate deeper into the Armayan circuit; she should have stuck to picking off stray familiars.

The music boomed around her and as she turned dizziness began to overcome her, her vision swirled as she saw the cages above the dancing floor, the dim lighting, every corner hidden in shadow. And then the sweet taste of salvation, she had been so consumed Kali hadn't even felt the human who had taken her by the hand and led her out one of the back exists. The cool night air washed over her and drove out the last vestiges of…_that_ place.

For a moment she just breathed deeply as the air-cooled the sweat, which had been beading across her forehead. Her entire body was slick with the dampness of sweat; it was more then a little embarrassing, oh she didn't care that her dress clung to her body even more sharply or that it had become partially translucent. She was simply embarrassed that she had been so easily overcome by a club!

"There, there, you'll be ok now" the voice was sweet, if a little patronising. And it was then that Kali realised her saviour still held her by the hand and was making soothing circles over her back.

As she straightened up Kali let her fangs flash in retribution, the girl openly laughed at the display. Was she mental? She had an Armayan glyph prominently displayed on the side of her neck and she was openly laughing at a vampire.

"A lot of turn bloods have trouble with the club scenes at first" the woman continued, "Generally the other vampires are meant to keep an eye out but when I saw you about to loose it I thought it prudent to intervene" she explained

Kali took a step back from the girl and seized her up, maybe five foot six, she was a little shorter then Kali herself, she had ashy blonde hair tied back in a knot and had almost flawless golden skin, something more exotic in her background, Egyptian maybe, and her eyes were a soft brown filled with mirth and concern.

Physically she looked only a few years older then Kali, early twenties maybe, she wore a short slanted white dress with a black leather jacket hanging off her shoulders, the jacket looked decidedly male.

The two of them stood in a near deserted alley, probably at the back of the club, she could smell a few vagrants a little way up and someone else who seemed to have passed out in the trash.

Despite the blow to her pride Kali said, "I suppose I should say thank you"

"Suppose?" the girl retorted

"Thank you" Kali replied, though begrudgingly. What she really wanted to be doing right then was to be tearing into the girls pretty little throat, but she had some restraint. And the girl had helped her somewhat, if she had lost it inside an Armayan club she would have been royally screwed.

That was enough for Kali, she turned to leave and could feel the press of the girls eyes watching her go, "That's it?" She heard the girl call after her "Not even going to offer to buy a girl a drink", there was something in the girl's inflection that made Kali turn around.

"You are very bold for a familiar" Kali announced

The girl just smiled back at her, "I'm Anastasia though my friends call me Ana" and she proffered her hand as if she were a lady of old. Kali smiled slightly as she cupped Ana's hand within her own and raised it to be kissed, first on the back of the hand, then slowly and carefully she turn Ana's hand over all the while maintaining eye contact while she kissed the pulse at Ana's wrist.

Kali felt a shudder move through her new friend at that and it was the familiar that stepped closer, gazing into Kali as if she were staring into the core of her very soul. She raised herself onto tiptoe and lightly pressed her lips to Kali's, she tasted so sweet and Kali couldn't help but respond.

Deepening their kiss until it was Ana that pursued her more aggressively, forcing Kali's mouth open with a probing tongue, her hands gliding around to rest on Kali's waist, until that subtle tongue of Ana's slid ever so gently across a fang. Kali pulled back then.

Breathing heavily as she stepped away from the girl, they had only just met and she was an Armayan familiar for god's sake! But despite what her mind was saying, her body was also speaking, she wanted to taste Ana, devour every last piece of her like an addiction.

The bloodlust was roaring to life in her, but why? She had already fed deeply that night, what was it about Ana, Ana who she had only exchange a handful of words with, that was feeding the insatiable hunger within her.

Breathing just as heavily Ana panted "I think this is where you tell me your name?"

"Ka-" she caught herself in the moment before she would have become revealed, Kali might mean nothing to the familiar or it might set off alarm bells. While she wasn't as famous as Blade she had began to make a rep for herself, especially with the Armayans.

"Kara" she said, "My name is Kara". Ana just looked at her with all too perceptive eyes.

"What's in a name anyway?" She asked, her palm sliding along Kali's face and back through her short wavy black hair. Her touch sent a ripple through the vampire and once more Ana leaned forward, lightly tracing Kali's lips with the tip of her finger

"My place isn't far from here," she whispered suggestively and Kali was too absorbed to fight the desire to go with her. Later she would wish that she hadn't given in so easily, hadn't been taken in by a beautiful face and tingling sensations.

But that was later…


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**2006**

**New York**

Later that Same Night 

"This wasn't exactly what I had in mind," Kali said through bloody lips.

The worse part of it was that the blood on her lips, was her own. A hard looking African American man glared daggers towards her before letting loose a fist, there was a deep meaty smacking sound as he backhanded her face.

It hurt. But she could deal with pain. As her head ricochet to the side she felt her teeth slice through her lips again as she fought not to gasp, she wasn't going to give the bastard that kind of satisfaction. Smiling sadistically as she turned to look at him through her damp and motley hair she pursed her lips and spat blood in his face.

It was more then worth it as his sudden attempt to jerk back, and away from her caused him to go careening through the air and smack into the ground. Kali gave a short bark of laughter as she watched him lying in a pool of blood.

The entire room was covered in wet and dried blood, some of it stained so old that it was like paint to the walls. Aside from being in some kind of large freezer like room she wasn't entirely sure where she was, and nothing surrounding her gave it away.

Earlier that night Kali had left the alley with Ana, enthralled by the young familiar and more then willing to satisfy needs beyond simple bloodlust. She had thought that Ana had the same ideas in mind, but she turned out to be the bait in an elaborate trap, which made sense now that she had the opportunity to think back over it.

Ana had pushed just the right buttons to entice Kali, to enflame her hungers so that she would be putty to be manipulated. She felt a fool now that she realised what had happened, the real irony of it was that she had been taken by hunters. And since they hadn't ashed her the moment they got the chance she could only assume they were going to torture her for information, probably thinking she was some Armayan flunking.

It made sense for them to select someone isolated, someone who wouldn't be immediately missed, hell in their place it was what she would have done. It was what she had done the night before, chosen two flunkies for her prey, people that wouldn't be immediately noticed as missing so that she would have enough time to send a message.

Directing her attention back to the African American, she watched as he pulled himself up using a table for support, wet blood had coated his pants and back and the image of him bathed in it was enough to make her laugh again.

She almost regretted giving into that impulse when he unleashed a volley of meaty fists onto her, working her stomach and sides like a professional thug. In fact she decided that's exactly what he was, just a thug, a grunt doing the menial labour, softening her up, intimidating her with violence and a dark cold room.

Kali didn't give him the satisfaction of anything more then a few grunts as he hit more tended spots of her anatomy. While he was giving himself over to the violence she was tenderly working the chains around her, the links were steal and a few inches thick each. But the cuffs restraining her wrists and ankles were forged with a high silver content so that they burned as she struggled against them.

They'd also cut her, small cuts, along her wrists and sides to let her bleed out a little, enough to weaken her without making her incoherent. She to admit that they knew what they were doing.

Kali had been chained in a vertical spread eagle but as the African American let up on his barrage he drew back his thick boot and smashed it back into the panels she was strapped to. They shattered with a vicious splintering, small pieces of wood cut into her back as her arms were yanked up.

Without the panel boards Kali was suspended by her wrists over the floor, and with all of her body weight pulling down on the shackles their high silver content was causing her skin to sizzle wickedly. The pain was a bitch, but she still wouldn't give the asshole the satisfaction of having her cry out.

Dangling as she was the brute gave her a hard kick to the thighs which sent her spinning in midair, until she was facing away from him, her weight still forcing her to turn slightly, but for the most part leaving her staring at another blood coated wall.

"I hope it was worth it bitch" he growled out in a low reverberating voice.

She might have made a biting comment of her own but at that moment two things happened, a small cut on her forehead caused blood to seep down into her eye. It would have been a sickening sight to watch the blood staining her pupil; it also stung like a son of a bitch. The second thing to happen was the sharp crack of a whip snapping beside her, so close she felt the wind slide along her skin.

Apparently it was time for him to up the intimidation a little. Just because a vampire could take and then heal a hell of a lot of damage didn't mean they wanted to, she was no exception to that rule, however for the sake of pissing off the enemy it was sometimes worth seeing the worst they could do…not to mention interesting.

Kali had been tortured by humans and vampires in the twenty-three years since she had encountered the teenage version of Blade. And from them she had learned the subtleties of the craft, how fine an instrument the body was and what it would take to break it physically and mentally.

He cracked the whip several more times, perhaps to make her fear build, to make her anguish over the waiting, or maybe he was just getting the feel of the tool. It never hurt to take a few practice strokes before stepping up to bat, torture was no different in that respect.

The pain was sharp and sudden as the whip bit through her back, a short gasp escaped her before she could silence it and she could feel the brute's satisfaction at that. The shock from the first lash numbed her for a moment and he seemed to know that. He paused, gave her body time to absorb the injury before he struck again.

His whip scored almost exactly across the line of his first lash and this time she felt the blood welling up and bursting from between her shoulder blades. The fucking thing was silver tipped and razor edged!

Perspiration slid down her face and body as she grunted and forced herself to be silent, the whip cutting across her again and again. There was also a side affect she hadn't anticipated, what remained of her dress was being shredded and as the whip continued to cut into her the tattered remains of her clothes fell from her body.

Leaving her naked except for the increasingly slick blood that was covering her.

And then he stopped. Kali hadn't even realised that she'd been holding her eyes tightly closed as she bit deeper into her own lips in an effort not to cry out. Blood, sweat and tears were mixed across her face as she listened to the brute slowly moving. His boots clunking against the cement floor.

She was kind of surprised that she could hear anything, echoes of the cracking whip were still resounding through her ears.

As he circled and came to a halt in front of her she forced her eyes to open despite the blood that was trying to crust over them. Kali had to squint to see him through her starry vision and what she saw pissed her off, he was smiling, happy, and the bulge spreading through his pants showed just how happy he was to watch her naked and dangling like a platter in front of him.

He was an even sicker puppy then she was.

The whip was held, curled in his arm as his eyes slid along her. She would have preferred him behind her with his whip instead of so blatantly ogling her.

Then he stepped forward, the whip dangling casually by his side as he reached out a hand and slid it over her blood stained face. But he didn't stop there, with a look of sheer delight his hand trailed down through blood and over flesh to touch her breast, though touch was too light a term. He grabbed at her hard and squeezed, groping her as his eyes trailed down her body even further.

Licking his lips he spoke, "You know, maybe we've been going about this the wrong way…me and Junior could show you a real good time bitch,"

He named his penis Junior? He really, really needed psychiatric help.

"Tell me" she said, "Is it the naked body? Or the blood and pain that you get off on"

He smacked her, hard across the jaw and sent her spinning.

"Or maybe it the chains," he hit her again. Harder that time, with a closed fist which forced her to spit out a mouthful of blood, though she spat towards the floor instead of at him.

"Nothing to be ashamed of, a lot of guys get off on having a girl all helpless and tied up. Makes them feel more manly"

His big fat boot sunk into her stomach and she hacked up blood, all across his chest, which just pissed him off even more.

"You thought I was bad before bitch, now I'm really going to rough you up" his voice screamed malevolence and he let the whip drop to the grade as he began to fiddle with his pants, "Now I'm going to tear you up on the inside too"

Half a second before he would have been able to carry out that threat a new voice rang out through the room.

"Enough" the voice resonated through the darkness, a feminine voice that rang with great authority and just a hint of danger. A voice that Kali has already learned was belied by the innocent looking face, the supple and unthreatening body.

Ana's voice commanded instant obedience, the African American may have been a thug but he didn't hesitant at her command. The attempted assault stopped and he stepped away to a safer distance.

"Turn her" The brute complied immediately, grasping Kali's waist and turning her to face the new comer, though he did take the chance to brush his fingers across a more private area in the process. A pervert as well as a brute.

As the woman stepped further into the room blinding halogen lights lit up, the sheer contrast from darkness to light burned Kali's eyes and forced her to jerk back attempting to avoid it. The intense lights lit every corner of the room and Kali was left squinting through the stars in her vision.

The lights were actually so bright that they more effectively hid parts of the room then the darkness had. While she was squinting at the woman she noticed that she and thug were now both wearing dark tinted glasses. How nice for them.

Closing her eyes against the light Kali felt an immediate sort of relief and she proceeded to rest her head back rather then strain forward against her restraints.

"This wasn't exactly what I had in mind when you said fun, Ana" Kali said with a measure of a control, but she couldn't entirely keep the pain out of her voice. Her body was still slick with dripping blood.

"You don't enjoy chains?" Ana echoed back "I do"

"Then why don't we chain you up instead, maybe I'll have more fun that way"

"Tut tut", she replied in a chastising tone, "You wouldn't want to offend your host by not at least pretending to enjoy yourself"

The girl was just a little that side of psychotic.

Kali made a mockery of thinking out loud, "Hmmm, gee, your right, wouldn't want to offend my host. Might get me beaten up"

Ana laughed then, a sweet serene and utterly psychotic laugh, "I knew you'd see things my way".

While they had been speaking Kali had tracked the sound of Ana's footsteps until she was standing right in front of her, and finally those halogen lights dimmed to a more tolerable level so that Kali was able to look her hostess in the face.

Ana's cool hand traced along Kali's bloody and bruised cheek, "We really have made a mess of you haven't we?" it was a rhetorical question, just like the concern in Ana's voice was as fake as fat free chocolate, "I'm sorry I left Brutus alone with you so long, I was preoccupied"

It was a classic stick and carrot approach, first abuse her, and then offer kindness. Just being a vampire didn't change the human psyche; vampires were just as susceptible to coercion and manipulation as anyone else…except maybe the pure bloods, never having been human they didn't think in entirely the same way. It was harder to break them.

"Now Kara, how about we start simply?" she suggested, "What's your real name?"

To answer or not to answer, that is the question! It might have seemed like a simple question but it was a step in the process, the moment Kali gave her anything, no matter how seemingly useless or unimportant she would have begun to weaken, open herself to greater coercion.

Looking deeply into Ana's cool brown eyes she wondered how she hadn't seen that unstable element before. Through swollen lips she finally said, "Is Anastasia your real name?"

She just smiled back, "As real as any"

"Then what does it matter if my name is Kara or not? You said it yourself, what's in a name anyway?" her words may have sounded more garbled in reality then they did in her head but she was fairly sure the gist of them had gotten through.

Once more Ana just laughed and stroked Kali's cheeks, this time tracing her lips almost seductively.

"Your not going to make this easy are you?"

"Not if I can help it," she replied, in as sickeningly sweet tone as she could manage.

"Tell me vampire, how many people have you tortured?"

The question surprised her and she answered without thinking, "Too many"

"So then you are familiar with coercive techniques, cruelty and kindness, good cop and bad cop, plain good old physical torture" Her eyes lit up as she spoke.

This time Kali watched her tongue and just nodded slightly, the effort reminded her of the extent of the swelling that was finding its way through her body. When she got free, she and 'Brutus' were going to have a very personal chat. And what kind of name was Brutus anyway? Not something that was exactly common in the 21st century. Though it did somewhat fit, Brutus the Brute.

"Then lets get right down to it" Ana said "one way or another we are going to break you. So for the purposes of leaving you intact as much as possible I'm going to tell you exactly what we want to know and you can choose to answer at any time you like". Honesty, just another form of intimidation to break the unwary mind.

"We know that you're a turn blood, there's a rather dainty scar on your arse that proves that" Being naked could be a real bitch sometimes, Kali thought venomously. She had become an instinctually aggressive woman since her life had become so fucked up, and now she was just imagining what she was going to do to 'Ana' when their roles were reversed. And they would eventually be reversed. Somehow she was imagining what Ana was going to look like once she was stripped, whipped and hung like a fish.

"We also know that you are not part of Armaya, which house are you? Who turned you? What are you doing in New York?"

Jeepers, which question to answer first? "You're a Nightstalker aren't you?" Kali asked in return.

Ana blanched at that, slightly taken aback. "I've met Nightstalker's before, they aren't generally so brutal…and just out of curiosity do the other cells know about your…proclivities" She was being intentionally vague now.

"And what "_proclivities_" would those be?" she said through a veil of coyness while leaning forward,

"Ashing" Kali replied sweetly while very obviously looking down to the plastic that covered the floor, plastic that have been layered so that it was easily removable.

See in the 21st century vampires had to contend with two major threats to their existence, the first being hunters, whether they be dhampir, human or something else entirely. And more recently they also had to contend with the ashers, groups of humans who killed vampires so they could sell the ash as a drug. It was extremely addictive and gave humans superior abilities for a short time; it also gave them a taste of the blood lust.

More then one human on ash had gnawed off their own fingers while the blood lust was upon them.

Ana looked slightly impressed that Kali had figured it out so quickly, it was also going to throw a few kinks in her interrogation techniques since Kali was going to be worth more dead to Ana then alive.

The Nightstalker just sighed as she looked up at her captive vampire, "Hunting is an expensive business".

"Well since we obviously have nothing to bargain with we can either torture you to death or ash you, your choice"

"Gee, your so kind, but I'll take option three"

Option three was painful in the extreme, but it was the only way Kali could see herself escaping in one piece. The thing about vampire physiology is that it is extremely susceptible to silver, so while they had been having a pleasant little chat Kali had been finishing what the silver had started, turning her wrist in the shackle, helping the silver to eat deeper and deeper into her flesh.

Her wrist and most of her right palm had been eaten through like an acid had been spread across them and with a centring breath and a savage scream Kali tore her arm free from the shackle.

The pain was indescribable as most of her hand was torn off leaving a bloody stump and jagged piece of bone in its place. Ana's eyes widened as that bloody stump smacked against her head with an audible crack, which flung her across the room. Smiling viciously she watched the stupidity of the average male in effect.

A smart man would have run for the door, sealed her in the room while she was still mostly restrained, or hell a smart man would have amped up the halogen lights and weakened her further. This man on the other hand ran towards her, maybe to try and restrain her again, maybe betting on his thuggish demeanour and physical strength to overcome her. If he was, then he was a fucking idiot.

**He was**.

Brutus grabbed at her flailing arm and she let him, as he tried to force her arm back she smiled again and with minimal effort she jerked her arm free and while he attempted to grab her again she struck back. As the jagged remains of her hand perforated the mans throat his blood spurted in a glorious hot rush across Kali's face, she drank it in and lapped up what she could reach with her tongue. His blood was tangy; there had been no time for fear to spice it. Which was ok with her, it was like anything; too much of it could ruin the effect.

With a glugging sound Kali dragged her bone from his throat and with a movie of lightning fast reflexes she reared back and put that same bone through his heart. It was doubtful he would have survived the first wound, but in her line of business it paid to be thorough.

Letting his dark body collapse and pool in its own blood she turned her attention to the next problem. The silver shackles still incarcerating her. She highly doubted those were the only Nightstalkers in the building and it wouldn't be long before someone came a running. Gritting her teeth against the pain Kali ran her bloody stump along the second shackle, if she still had both hands she could have simply torn it from her. But lacking a second hand she pressed the jagged bone into the shackle and like a lever tried to force it apart, screaming in rage and pain she used her still bound hand to apply greater pressure.

The cell she was bound in must have been soundproof for her echoing screams to have not yet brought more humans to her, but finally through ears and blood she felt the binding begin to flex. The silver was eating into her wrist viciously, but that too was working to her advantage as the metal continued to bend. "Arghhh" with a final throaty roar the shackle gave and she tore herself free. Panting with the exertion she stared down at her savaged hands, the nerve endings had been burnt all to heal but she still had some control, some movement.

Another problem was that with the shock and pain to her system her sudden freedom meant a quick plummet to the cold and bloody cement floor. For a moment she simply lay there while the desire to never move again swept through her. If she gave in to that urge it would be her death and she knew that. But her body ached and burned and was giving up on her.

Just a little more, she thought, just a little more and then you can bathe in their blood. It was the thought of vengeance that finally gave her the strength to stand; death would mean freedom from a cursed and wretched existence, from a life of isolation and loneliness, from pain and condemnation. But in the end she was simply too damn vindictive to let herself die while she still had scores to settle.

She turned what reserves of strength she had to shatter the shackles that still held her feet; blissfully she had lost feeling in almost her entire body so pain was not much of an issue anymore, and the wonderful affects of adrenalin were running rampant within her.

As much as she would have dearly loved to finish the unconscious Ana where she lay, it would be too easy, and not nearly satisfactory enough. Pain Kali could forgive, she could forget. But Ana had used her emotions against her, had made her feel more then just primal or carnal desires. And that she could neither forgive nor forget. Kali was also in no state to take Ana with her, so it was a score that would have to be settled another time, but before she left to whether she could fight her way free of an enemy stronghold she knelt beside the oh so beautiful Ana and slid the tips of her fingers over the beautiful golden skin.

"Ana" she whispered, while cradling the bloody ruin of her hand "We will meet again little hunter…until then I leave a parting gift to remember me"

Kali began to trace the mark of Armaya that inked Ana's neck, and drawing a blade from the dead Brutus she carefully and methodically cut the glyph from Ana's skin, it wasn't her best work, but she removed the glyph and the skin it was attached to in its whole state while not doing anything that would fatal to the hunter, other then leave a nasty scar amongst otherwise flawless skin.

"We will meet again," she whispered.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**2006 October 20th **

**New York**

Kali nursed her wounds in the relative safety of her own little sanctuary, her escape from the Nightstalkers had been a bloody one; despite no one having been alerted by her earlier carnage. She had killed at least three more of them and wounded two others before she reached street level. But once she had she was home free, she took to the rooftops and fast out ran any pursuit.

Now she was tired, bloody and seeking her bed as the sun began to rise, she could feel it pressing against the building as she retreated into the deepest part of her home, a completely sealed and isolated room where she kept her narrow little cot. It wasn't much but luxuries were not high on her list or priorities.

Rest was. Rest and healing sleep. When she awoke she was going to loose part of her night hunting, but that couldn't be helped. After that it was a simple matter of deciding on her next priority. Carving a bloody path through Armaya? Or finding Ana? Maybe both. Either way carnage was on the menu.

Kali awoke with the coming of darkness, and in the new night she felt different, renewed, a cool sense of control had settled over her. There would be no pretences that night, no more hiding who and what she was. Death and destruction would soon walk the streets of New York.

She drew on a pair of tight form fitting leather pants, which settled against her body like a second skin. Her tunic was next, fastened tightly across her body so that her moulded high-grade tactical armour could then fit over it. Dark silver plated steel edged boots reached to her knees and gave her another inch in high. Like soldiers of old she strapped her short sword to her belt so that it hung by the side of leg while she holstered a nine mm glock beneath her right arm. She strapped her scalpel like silver blades to sheaths on her arms and finally slid into the embrace of her leather coat.

Running a hand gently down her face she found the damage Brutus had inflicted on her was long healed, and what had been a bloody wreck the night before had become a useable if somewhat grotesque version of her hand. Kali slipped on a pair of leather gloves to conceal the damage before she strapped the final weapon in her arsenal to her belt. The UV flash grenade. She would feed and heal further and then she would kill; how many vampires could a UV grenade ash in a tightly packed, enclosed space. She was curious to find out.

Some nights it felt like fate was on Kali's side, fate, kismet, destiny, or sheer coincidences of epic proportions. Everything lined up as if it were meant to be, and who was she to argue with fate on those rare nights?

She had stalked the fringes of the same Armayan club she had frequented the previous night, her keen eyes piercing the shadows to find Ana, almost as if she were waiting. Huddled in a corner of the booming room; for the first time Kali noticed she looked uncomfortable, perhaps it had something to do with the large gauze bandage that now marked her neck.

Watching the hunter wince as she slowly turned to look around the club was a satisfaction in its own right. Sometimes Kali wondered if she wasn't a little too sadistic, wondered if she didn't enjoy the game just a little too much. But she quickly shrugged that off as she edged across the room, using the bodies of the frantic mass to shield her from sight.

Whether her brief exposure to the booming music's and human masses had anaesthetized her already, or whether she was just too intent on her prey, her senses too focused on a single individual to take in the disorientating scene around her Kali was simply glad she wasn't succumbing like she had the first night. Her pride could only take so many blows.

For a time the vampire simply watched Ana, occasionally moving her vantage point to keep from being detected herself. It was almost an irony that in her full battle attire Kali actually blended into the crowd better then she had in a dress.

But sooner or later someone was going to get too close, brush past the sword she was attempting to conceal, and despite her intention to carve a bloody hole in Armaya, she would prefer to do it on her own time table, so she began to slowly make her way towards Ana.

When the shit hit the fan Kali didn't want her slipping away.

In the moment before Kali almost miraculously appeared beside Ana she noticed the clenched teeth, the strain across her jaw and the glow of pain seeping from her eyes. Kali had to admire that, the hunter had returned to the lion's den the night after having part of her neck cut away and being thrown across a room, and she was there without any kind of pain medication.

Of course meds could make one drowsy, could make one slip up. A death warrant for a hunter.

Smiling sadistically Kali slid into the booth beside Ana and clasped the girl's hand from where it was resting on her knee. Ana's head jerked to the side, as she looked at the vampire in startled shock.

Kali just continued to stare out across the room as she crossed her legs, from her time flitting around observing her prey she had seen that Ana was wearing a simple black dress, almost a twin to the white one she had worn the night before, with a long wide slit through it. A silver ankh decorated her neck and the same black jacket as the night before was casually placed beside her.

Though tonight she wore her hair in a loose cascade over her shoulders, partially obscuring her bandage.

"Hello Ana"

After a few moments of their tableau Ana frowned, "Hi Kara. Thanks for the remembrance", she said while she slowly stroked the gauze.

"Call me Kali" she grinned in genuine amusement then and slipped an arm around her companion's waist so that their bodies were pressed together. It was partially so that if Ana tried anything it would be a simple matter for her to be silenced without drawing any unwanted attention…but somehow she didn't think Ana was going to try anything. She also did it because simply put she enjoyed resting against the other woman.

They were two predators in an enemy den, both curious as to what the other was going to do.

Acting as the intimates they were not Kali leaned into the hunter and whispered what would appear to be sweet nothings in a lovers ear, she knew her breath was warm as she could feel the shivers it sent down Ana's spine when she spoke.

"I have a nice pair of chains at home just waiting for you baby," Kali's hand glided down the silk fabric of the hunters dress, playing along the slit over her leg.

Ana closed her eyes and leant back, biting her lip to suppress any breathy sounds that might have escaped as Kali's hand continued to edge under the dress.

The sharp metallic click of hand cuffs, and the cool bite of metal around the human's hand belied what they had apparently been doing. "Mmm" Kali murmured, "Somehow I thought a girl who liked chains would be carrying cuffs"

Ana just turned pouty lips towards the vampire, this time it was her turn to whisper. Her breath brushed across Kali's neck like a warm breeze, and her voice still rang with that unmitigated authority.

"Why do I get the feeling you want me to stick around?" Her voice was tinged with amusement as she lifted her delicate human hand to emphasise the cuffs that now bound her to one of the booths metal legs.

"Because you're very intuitive" Kali drew out the last word, playing it across her tongue as she finally lent back a little, allowing Ana at least the illusion of space.

"If I'm so intuitive why is it that I would have picked another hunter to seduce?" The first time they had met Ana was playful, even a little childish. But now that voice of authority came from a maturer woman, like she had radically shifted her entire persona.

Traditionally women had been called the deceivers, betrayers, liars, thieves, they wore a thousand faces. Kali had the strangest idea that Ana fully embodied that traditional view, she was more then a little curious to find out just how many sides she could discover.

"You are the Kali that messed up the Armayan two nights ago, aren't you?" she elaborated, almost questioningly

Kali smiled sweetly, with a hint of coyness in her expression, as if to say, _who me?_ She even went as far as to point with one delicate and shapely finger towards herself.

"My god" Ana breathed out, "What you did to him…I mean, they had to ash him" there was just a little bit of awe in the hunters eyes, "He was so messed up the higher ups didn't think he had a chance in hell of healing the damage, or that anything would be left of his mind if he did"

"I have skills," Kali said simply.

"Why does that sound like a threat…?"

There was nothing nice about the vampires smile or demeanour then, "It's really too bad I killed you brute so quickly, I would have deeply loved to have shown him what torture really is. Guess I'll be educating you instead "

Ana took that in better humour then Kali would have expected, with a quirked brow she said, "I like pain"

She really was psychotic. And yet that twisted streak just made her more appealing to Kali.

"Well my sadistic little hottie, I'd love to stay and chat but I have so many things to kill before I take you home" Kali slid a finger down Ana's nose as she spoke, giving it a little flick as she finished. "You might want to stay down, I hear inhaling too much ash is bad for you"

And with that remark and Ana's quizzical look Kali slid out of the booth and emerged from the shadowy little realm at the edge of the club into the mainstream. Dancing screaming bodies were pact around her and the violent vibrations from the sub woofers echoed through her bones.

The mind numbingly horrific music was reason enough to immolate the club and everyone in it, the fact half of the occupants were Armayan vampires and familiars was just a bonus.

As the music shifted into a fast paced dance number, white lights began to flash over the room. Hard white lights, which sent stars across Kali's vision and was probably just as uncomfortable for every other vampire in the room. What the hell was the point of a club run by vampires and catering to vampires if it wasn't even going to create a comfortable freaking environment for them?

Time slowed to Kali's perception as she stopped in the centre of the dance floor, the surrounding bodies flitted around her, blurring as if it they were moving incredibly fast. It was strange how perception worked.

In time to the flashing lights Kali unclipped the UV grenade, clicked the safety lock off and threw it high into the air, the first pulse of ultraviolet light spread through the club with a light searing effect. Like a bad tan, flesh burned and almost instantly every vampire in the club looked up in horror.

The booming beat of absurd music silenced as the weapon arched through the air. It glowed a faint violet and the Armayan's watched on in horror as the second pulse of searing light spread out, once more perceptions deceived everyone.

It seemed as if they had forever to move, to run or flee but in reality only tenths of a second past before that second pulse echoed out across the room.

While the second pulse spread in an ever-growing sphere Kali dove to her knees, drawing her thick leather coat across her body to shield her from the deadly ultraviolet rays, every item of clothing she wore that night had been specifically designed and made with a black out effect so that no light, no matter how minute or microscopic could penetrate it.

The only part of her body that was truly exposed was her face and neck, and as the light seared the flesh from vampire bones her head was safely hidden beneath a light impenetrable material.

With her heightened senses she heard the brief, almost inaudible screams of vampires and familiars, heard the vampires ash. It was the sweetest of music's, and finally after what felt an eternity but had in reality only been moments she heard the clarity of the UV grenade strike the floor and bounce once, twice, and thrice before it came to a stop.

Casting off her protective barrier Kali rose to her feet to take in the carnage, a few vampires had survived the pulsing weapon. But their bodies were badly burned and they lay immobile, straining to move. Humans looked around in horror and fear, for some of them it was their first encounter with the vampire world.

The ash from the now dead vampires had been caught by the light breeze coming from the AC and was now stuck to the hot sweaty bodies of the humans, mingling and running down their flesh creating a grungy look throughout the room.

For a brief moment Kali caught Ana's eyes, once more the hunter looked impressed with her actions, crazy as they might have been. She too was covered in the grime of ash after nearly half the establishment's customer had just been turned to dust.

The tableau of shock and horror across the room lasted another fraction of a second before all out chaos took effect, men and woman rushing, clawing their way to the exits. A number of them crushed the now brittle bodies of the surviving vampires in their haste to flee…but others were running in a different direction.

The first familiar to rush her stood at six foot five and outweighed her by as much as three hundred pounds, his lumbering mass charged towards her and she casually sidestepped him. Drawing her blade and slicing across his ample belly in a single movement, shock over took him as he stopped to see a slim line of red cross his stomach, followed by the hard press of his guts and perforated bowels pushing themselves out and across the floor.

A god-awful stench from his bowels assaulted her senses a moment later and he collapsed over his own spilled entrails.

The music that had just moments ago boomed through the room came to an abrupt and sputtering halt as ash clogged the speakers.

The second familiar to make a play for her was faster but just as stupid as the first, Kali heard the squeak of pivoting boots and felt the rush of air as he tried to close around her in a bear hug from behind, she let her body drop forward as she fell into a tightly executed roll, as she came to her feet her blade slid behind her and cut the man from sternum to throat.

It was a long slash up his body, but a shallow one. She heard his gasp, more from the shock of the sting then from any real kind of pain as she swivelled and drew her sword from left to right across his throat.

A gush of blood splattered over Kali's body armour before the man could clasp his hands over his own throat, a meaningless action since her blade had cut him deep. She could see the white of his spine through the gaping whole in his neck and it was only a matter of moments before his brain caught up with the fact that his body was dead.

Two more familiars came at her in a semi coordinated attack, the first man was African American and just short of six feet, though he made up for the height with muscles that strained through his shirt as he circled around her. The second man had a distinctly Asian appearance with oval eyes and short cropped black hair, if she was being generous she would have said he was five foot five. But he was lean muscle and he held an aluminium bat like he knew how to use it, and with each circling step he showed an awareness of his environment. The pooling blood and bodies that may have proved obstacles to an inexperienced fighter.

Asian man saluted her with the bat, an almost courtesy warning before he moved, on instinct she block his bat with her sword and instantly regretted it. The reverberations through her arms and the painfully loud clang revealed that her sword had just been dented, and bent inwards.

That pissed her off.

Forgetting him for a moment she let loose a wild spinning side kick that sent her airborne and caught the black guy across the face, he went down hard, but before he could drop more then a few inches she followed up her side kick with a hard back kick that shattered several of his ribs.

As he suddenly went flying across the room Kali's feet found the ground again and she stepped into the Asian mans next swing, she caught the bat before it had gathered any real momentum and pivoted into his body.

With a savage vindictiveness to revenge her ruined blade Kali brought the man's arm down over her shoulder. It was a simple but effective strike when used against a shorter opponent, the resulting leverage of a shorter persons arm being bent over a taller persons shoulder quite nicely resulted in a broken arm. The Asian man was no exception to that rule, his arm snapped and as she continued to pull his weight down she dislocated his shoulder as well. Remarkably he contained himself to a pained grunt.

Kali continued with her previous actions and turning her hips further into him so that she flipped the man into the ground, dropping a knee into him she smacked an open palm strike into his face. She felt the cartilage shatter under her blow, but doubted that she'd used sufficient force to drive it back into his brain.

Liberating his bat she rose to her feet and swung the metallic club in a mockery of an uppercut, shattering the lower part of another familiars face, she let the momentum from the strike turn her so that the bat smashed back into that same familiar.

Kali was liquid grace as she dispensed crippling injuries and death to the familiars who came towards her. The blood of her enemies coated her body and stained her jacket, but in the midst of all that death a few bodily fluids went unnoticed.

As she brought the dented and bloody baseball bat down on what she thought was the last familiar a resounding boom echoed through the nearly empty room. Closely followed by a second, and a third.

The bullets smacked into her chest, jerking her right then left before the final one struck her dead centre. In the flickering lights of what remained of the club Kali saw a female familiar standing in a two-handed gun stance, an obvious smirk decorating her face, as she believed she had just killed the renegade vampire.

Admittedly she may have done just that…if Kali hadn't been wearing body armour.

In a flash Kali raced the room before the familiar could realise her error, before the gun could find her again Kali was knocking it from the woman's hands. On a scale of one to ten the formerly armed familiar was a minus three on the attractiveness scale. But her blood was as good as anyone's.

Kali spun the woman and reared back before sinking her teeth into that soft fleshy part of the neck, she tasted only a brief spurt of blood before she proceeded to snap the familiar's neck. She didn't have time to really feed, and it would rain in hell before she sired a vampire by accident. Kali would only impart the curse of Blades bloodline on someone if she truly meant to, if she truly wanted to. She was not careless enough to do it by mistake.

And it was done. The only two people left alive in the club were herself and Ana…and technically it was debateable as to whether Kali was alive or not.

Looking towards her prisoner she began to stalk towards her, her leather coat trailing through blood and thicker remains as she moved. Her face and clothes were saturated with the blood of the dead and yet as she walked towards Ana the hunter was looking at her as if she were the embodiment of Christmas. A present waiting to be unwrapped.

"Kali" she whispered, "Traditionally thought of as a goddess of death and destruction" her eyes strayed to take in the room, "Well you certainly have that part down"

"That's sweet" Kali replied, she could feel the blood already staining her lips as it cracked around her words. "But I'm still going to torture you"

Kali snapped the cuffs binding Ana and preceded to set the Armayan club on fire, it was only as she was slipping out the back alley with an unconscious hunter over her shoulder that she saw the clubs name. It sent a merry chuckle through her that expanded until she was almost giddily laughing as she made her escape moments before Armayan enforcers arrived, closely followed by the police who must have been called in by some of the normal human escapees.

_Le feu de la mort_. **The fires of Death**.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

**2006 October 21****st**

**New York**

Armayan Stronghold

"How many?"

"Eighty three confirmed Sir, but there could be as many as fifty more, its difficult to tell especially with the club being so badly burned"

William let the familiars words wash over him with a wave of anger; his first impulse was to tear the human to pieces. But that wouldn't set a good precedent, nor would it help the situation. How the hell had one fucking vampire killed as many as a hundred and thirty turnblood's and however many familiars had been in the club as well?

If he ever found the human who invented UV weapons he'd show them the meaning of pain.

On that note, "How many familiars?"

"Eighteen so far, our people are still digging through the rubble"

William waved a hand to dismiss the man from his office. He truly wasn't in the mood to deal with a familiar right at that moment.

After Damek's death what little remained of the House of Armaya fractured, all of the individual organisations and groups fell into the hands of whoever had been directing them at the time. In the case of the New York operations, several clubs and what the humans would have called a crime syndicate, came to the sole control of William.

A seventy-year old turn blood that had been bitten by Damek himself shortly before what would have been his thirtieth mortal birthday.

And in the few months since Damek had died William had done exceedingly well, he had been forced to kill several other Armayan's who were arrogant enough to believe they could take the operations away from him. But after that it had been smooth sailing…

Though he had heard rumours from a dozen other cities, rumours of a young vampire who was cutting a bloody swathe through the Armayans. The few people who had survived an actual confrontation with her couldn't give more then a generic description while they babbled over death incarnate.

William had simply thought them mad. Until two of his own had been brutally slain, and he meant his own in everyway. He had chosen Luke and Tommy, had turned them and taught them, trained them so that in time they would have become two of his enforcers…he had always been an ambitious vampire.

He had been forced to ash Tommy himself, the damage was simply too severe…and until the moment he saw what had been done to the thuggish Tommy he hadn't believed that a vampire could survive such injuries, such devastation. The assailant was a master of her craft, William would give her that.

Not only a master, but malicious. She had chosen her methods very carefully so that when Tommy was brought in the only word he could speak was her name, over and over again. Whispering it, screaming it.

What really pissed him off was the lack of information, what house was she? Was she a pure blood or a turn blood, why was she killing her own kind?!

In a violent rage William swept everything off his desk, computer, papers, a lamp, it all smashed into the wall. But it wasn't enough; cracking his fingers deep into the oak desk he heaved it with such force that it half shattered the door as they collided.

He let loose a bloodthirsty roar as he screamed his rage. Smashing his fists against walls until they bled. He was going to personally rip that bitch to fucking pieces. She had killed his people, undermined his authority and made him look weak.

Breathing heavily he slumped back into his encompassing leather chair, he sunk into it and let his bleeding fists drip across the material.

He was not weak.

At the Same Time

Kali awoke from her slumber, refreshed and excited to go to work. Once she had cleared out the Armayan club she had returned to her own stronghold, where she took the time to sleep away the day. She had wanted to go straight to work but some small part of her that actually had good judgement convinced the rest of her that she should be at her best.

If she made a mistake early on…well it would ruin everything.

As she slipped out of what might have been called her bedroom she put on a vibrant white gown and tied her hair back in a knot. It was sheer insanity but she wanted to look good when she saw Ana, when she began to torture her.

And besides that sadistic part of her loved to be wearing white when blood started gushing, more then once she had only stopped when her white gown was saturated with the fluids of her victim, when the white was dark red, almost black with both the dried and wet blood of her subjects.

For a moment she just looked over the thick metal slab that the young hunter was chained to, she lay horizontally across it and was stripped naked. Kali had left her there through out the day as she slept, a thick black blindfold covering half of her face so that she would be able to hear but not see.

The young hunter was lithe, her skin stretched over muscle, and that beautiful golden colour of her flesh wasn't a tan. Now that Kali could see all of her she thought Ana could only really be described as sun kissed, a phrase that she had once heard used to describe the mythical unseelie sidhe.

Kali glided across the room as quietly as she could so that when her hand came to rest on Ana's cheek the human jerked in shock. Utterly surprised that someone else was now beside her.

"Good Evening Ana" Kali spoke in a soft breathy tone.

"Kali" she replied, "What a pleasure to se-" she cut herself off and changed what she had been about to say, "What a pleasure to hear you"

"Would it be at all possibly for me to look upon your ravenous beauty?" It was almost a mockery of flattery, but then most humans didn't do well when you denied them their senses for any period of time, there was also the finest quiver in Ana's voice, echoed by the shivers running across her skin.

_Of course_, Kali thought, _the shivers could be from the cold_. They were after all underground and it was shaping up to be a chilly night.

Ana blinked in rapid succession when the blindfold was removed, her eyes trying to adjust to the light. Standing above the hunter Kali looked down into her eyes as she slowly stroked her face, taking the time to trace her lips and feel the humans warm breath slide across her fingers.

"How would you feel if I told you that while you were interrogating me I was imagining what I was going to do when our positions were reversed?" Kali asked lightly.

Ana smiled back at her, "I'd feel like that was a perfectly normal response to torture…and then I'd ask what your little mind came up with?"

"This" Kali said, spreading her arms to indicate Ana's predicament, "was the first thing I thought of. What you would look like once you'd been stripped, I wondered how many scars your delicate human body would have"

"Fair's fair" she replied

Kali traced a line of scar tissue over Ana's shoulder and felt the human shudder beneath her touch, not from revulsion but from pleasure.

Her other hand found another line of scaring under Ana's ribs, like someone had taken something jagged, almost serrated and started hacking into her.

"A broken bottle" Ana offered, answering the unasked question

And across her right arm was the evidence of a bad break; the bone had cleaved through the flesh at some point. Those two were the worst of the scars, but her body was decorated in a myriad of smaller better-healed wounds, scars that could have only come from a violent past. A **very** violent past.

Ana didn't offer an explanation for any of her other scars, and Kali didn't ask

"What you did to my neck is going to scar as well"

Kali just shrugged at that, "Somehow I suspect you would have had the glyph removed sooner or later yourself…unless you wanted to be marked as an Armayan familiar for the rest of your life"

Ana gave her a dirty look at that, "I would have gone with something a little less…"

"Damaging?" Kali offered.

"Visible"

The vampire just smiled sadistically.

"So my sweet little Ana, how shall we start tonight? With fire, or maybe blades. The whip? Any preferences? I do this great little trick where I skin your fingers one by one"

The hunter took a deep breath; from where Kali's hand lay over her ribs she felt Ana's chest rise and fall as she slowly exhaled. When she looked towards Kali again her eyes gleamed with indifference to the possibility of torture, beaming with that psychotic streak she had worn when it was Kali that was about to be exquisitely tortured.

"I wouldn't want to influence your creativity," she breathed out, not even the slightest waver in her voice.

"Aww, that's sweet. Just one more question Ana, and then we really should get started, what's the worst fate a vampire hunter could imagine? Ponder that for a while"

Ana looked like she was going to make a response but Kali chose to cut her off, she already had something in mind and before the sun rose again she was going to sink something of herself into her captive.

She cut her off by crushing her finger, one hand gently enclosed Ana's left pinkie while the other clasped her wrist and she squeezed. Bringing to bear all of her vampiric strength and crushing it before violently snapping it. Ana screamed, shrieking in agony with an ear shattering, mind numbingly piercing scream.

Nine fingers to go.

But as she watched the pained tears seep from Ana's crunched up face she couldn't bring herself to do it, and she hated herself for that. Torture was what she did, she was good at it, very good.

She'd tortured people she'd known for years and never felt anything but satisfaction, pleasure. She hadn't even really started on Ana and yet she couldn't go any further.

In two days she had already grown…attached. Fond of her. She was sarcastic and sadistic; she had a past drenched in blood and a psychotic streak to match Kali, she was a hunter and so very beautiful.

Kali felt more like slaughtering whoever had already marked her rather then continuing to add her own marks. "Damn it!" she screamed and savagely smashed her hands into the metal slab.

Her arms reverberated with the effort and blood squeezed its way through her pores at the impact. Ana's teeth were still gritted against the pain, but after Kali's outburst she had turned her attention towards her.

"I can't hurt you," she said aloud "No" she corrected herself "I don't want to hurt you"

What the hell was wrong with her? Just two nights before Ana had been the one having her tortured, beaten and whipped and they had been heart beats away from ashing Kali when she escaped.

Ana just looked…startled. Shocked. Frozen in disbelief.

"Damn it!" She repeated with frustration

Gritting her teeth she rapidly unchained her captive and before she could move Kali viciously sank her nails into the girl, gripping her flesh and using it to hurl her across the room with a meaty smack as she impacted with the wall.

Ana grunted and slid to the floor, her face pressed against the wall. Kali could hear her breathing becoming strained, smell the human's blood permeating the air, but she was moving on instinct now. She couldn't afford to be weak, couldn't afford to be lenient.

Kali grabbed the whip that had been hanging beside the table and without time for thought jerked it back. It cut through the air with an almost booming crack and sliced through Ana's back leaving a slick trail of blood as she let loose another piercing scream.

She lashed out again and again, each time the whip cutting deeper into the hunter's body, each time with Ana screaming out until eventually she huddled in a ball against the wall. Making herself smaller, less of a target as she sobbed.

And the way she did it, curled around herself protectively, Kali could tell it was a practiced movement, something she had done a lot… "DAMN IT!" She screamed again before dropping the bloodied whip, she was crying as well.

She couldn't do it anymore, couldn't go through the motions. Kali wanted to tear herself to pieces for what she had just done, Ana wouldn't heal as fast as Kali did, she would probably be scarred by that whip for the rest of her life.

Ana wasn't even one of the bad guys, not a vampire, or a familiar, but a hunter! Gods. What had she done?

Kali didn't even realise she had crossed the room, that she had knelt beside Ana and was stroking her hair, her tears mingling with blood. She wanted to bathe in sunlight for her evils.

But now that she was so close to Ana, so close that all she could smell was that tantalising scent of blood she was being overwhelmed by the desire to feed, she wanted it, needed it and inch by inch she was getting closer to those gushing torrents of blood.

In the last moments as her teeth brushed Ana's skin her hand came to rest on the mound of scar tissue below her ribs, that rough texture, the pain that someone else had caused her. It might as well have been done by Kali for all it mattered now.

"I won't feed" she muttered to herself, "I won't. I won't. I won't!"

**2006 October 22****nd**

No light permeated Kali's sanctuary, but she could feel the press of daylight, of the sun over the building. She could also read her watch, which said it was nearly one in the afternoon. The sun was almost directly overhead and she felt strange being awake.

It wasn't as if the moment the sun rose she collapsed into a comatose state, but she still preferred to sleep away her days so that she could hunt at her most effective.

Right then she wasn't considering hunting, or the sun or anything else on earth, heaven or hell except for Ana. The control it had taken to back away from the young woman had terrified her, but she had done it, pulled away before her teeth broke through the human's skin.

Before she fed or infected her. That was a hunters worse fear, when Kali had asked her what she thought a hunters greatest fear would be, that was what she had had in mind and before she had begun to torture Ana and realised that she couldn't, she had intended to bite and infect the young hunter before releasing her back into the world.

See how long she lasted with her own people or with the other vampires once that had happened.

It was strange how things could change so quickly. Kali had just spent most of the night and a good portion of the day watching over Ana as she slept, her wounds bandaged and an IV steadily dripping morphine.

In her years of mayhem she had learned how to keep a person alive as well as how to torture them, they were not mutually exclusive topics. Quite the opposite, a good torturer needed to know the limits of the body, and how to keep someone alive for prolonged periods.

Though this time Kali just didn't want to be responsible for Ana's death, her wounds were disinfected and she now lay on Kali's own bed. Her human blood soaking into the sheets as she lay on her stomach, her hands lightly restrained so that she wouldn't roll over and aggravate the lashes across her back.

Kali watched anxiously as Ana slowly ascended through her drugged stupor, slightly glazed eyes rolled to focus on the vampire. "Vampire" she murmured weakly

"I didn't bite you" Kali said quickly and Ana just shook her head in response

"The answer to your question" she said with some difficulty "Worst fate. Hunter"

Ah. Kali understood then.

"Why…didn't…you" she was labouring for breath "Kill…me?"

Kali just looked away, too ashamed to respond.

"Answer me" Ana demanded, her voice may have been weak but she issued her demand with authority.

"Are…you…in…love with…me?" The question rattled Kali to the core, was she in love with her? She found her beautiful, attractive, she couldn't bare the thought of anything else happening to her, especially something that Kali herself might do.

Oh Shit. She was. She was in love with her; the thought brought a tear to her eye and anguish spread through her.

Licking her lips Kali spoke, "What's left of the Nightstalker's should be here soon, I stopped jamming your transmitter as soon as I knew you'd live" She didn't want to say why she had waited that long, but in the depths of her soul, if she still had such a thing, she knew why she had waited.

If it looked like Ana would die, if her wounds became infected Kali would have bitten her. Better an eternity as a monster then dead.

"Good bye" she whispered and as Ana opened her mouth, to labour to speak once more Kali ran. She fled from her sanctuary and to street level. With the sun overheard no light penetrated into the building itself, but she could see it, just on the other side of the run down doors.

Only heart beats away.

The daywalker may have sired her, but beneath the sun she would burn like any other vampire. And right then she just couldn't bring herself to care.

Her plans, her ideas meant nothing to her anymore. She had been a vampire 23 years, 23 years was enough time for her. She didn't need anymore.

But her hesitation cost her the decision, as she stepped forward a hand rested against her shoulder and delicately spun her around into Ana's embrace, the act brought their lips together and Kali kissed her like she was life itself.

She needed her. Ana tasted of blood but it just made her all the sweeter for Kali, her hands fell across Ana's back and pulled her closer, held her more tightly.

Ana winced as Kali's hands fell over the gauze that hid her wounds, but Kali devoured that wince between their interlocking mouths, she wanted everything, needed everything but as Ana pulled away Kali slid to the floor in tears.

It was the hunter who was in real physical pain, but yet it was Kali that was crying, sobbing like a child. Whispering over and over again how sorry she was as Ana made soothing noises and rubbed her back.

What a sight they made, the wounded still bleeding and nearly naked hunter comforting the bloodstained and sobbing vampire. What a sight indeed…especially as it was in that moment the Nightstalker's burst through those decrepit old doors and took in the frozen tableau.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

**2006 October 22****nd**

**1:06 pm**

Two tall men, one black, one white, burst through the decrepit old doors of the building above Kali's sanctuary. Both were over six foot tall, well muscled and wearing dark body armour. The African American man was carrying the modified version of the Armies all-purpose assault weapon, whether it was UV ammo or silver stakes she didn't want to find out.

The second man had two smaller pistols pointed in Kali's general direction, probably with standard silver hollow points. Again not something she particularly wanted to find out.

If she hadn't been moulded against Ana's body when they burst through those doors she would have been ash already. And amazingly as the two men took positions Ana stepped forward to completely block Kali from sight, if they wanted to shoot her they'd have to shoot through one of their own to do it.

"Hey guys" Ana said, her hands spreading out in a general declaration of being unarmed, not dangerous, "Easy", but as she said that her legs buckled and she began a quick descent to the ground.

Kali surged forward from her crouched position to catch the hunter, twisting her own body to soften Ana's landing.

The two new arrivals just looked at her as she did so, she could practically see their minds turning over what had just happened. To them the most logical explanation would be that she was trying to use Ana as a human shield.

"For the moment vampire we're more interested in our wounded comrade then you, let her go and we'll settle this later" the white man said, surprisingly with a Russian accent.

"The hell we will" the second man chimed in, and with a vengeful smirk he raised the assault rifle, trapped as she was beneath Ana Kali couldn't even attempt to move.

Didn't these people know about the concept of honour? Apparently the Russian did, without looking away from Kali he reached out a hand to his comrade's shoulder. It was enough to make him hesitate.

Or maybe honour had nothing to do with it, maybe he was just concerned about weapons fire hitting Ana. Kali knew that was what she was worried about.

The African American was still looking edgy, so from her trapped position Kali suggested, "You want to take a shot at me? Let your friend take Ana and we can see how this plays out?"

Ana tried to speak but began coughing instead, Kali was sure she'd be fine in time, but for the moment she was still in rough shape and cradled as she was in Kali's lap the lashes across her back had to be agony.

The trigger-happy Nightstalker just gave a small, almost imperceptible nod to his friend, which prompted him to move forward and gently scoop Ana from Kali's embrace.

"Be careful, her back has been torn up pretty badly," She said, the Russian just gave her a look, which she couldn't quite decipher. If she had to guess she'd say it meant she was going to die screaming. But that was just a guess.

Ana was engulfed in the vastness of the Russians arms and Kali watched with sorrow as he retreated back onto the street and into the light, to relative safety. She had to admire that; he was more willing to take care of his own then to seek vengeance. Most hunter's only cared about the kill.

While she was still looking out at Ana the Nightstalker caught her by surprise and smashed the butt of his rifle into her face. She felt her nose crack and blood spurt across her face and watched it splattered over the ground.

She used the back of her hand to wipe the blood away as she looked up towards the Nightstalker, his dark bald head seemed to gleam with reflected light from the white of his teeth. He pumped a round into the chamber of the weapon and lowered it towards her face,

"Well?" She said defiantly, "Finish it"

"Brutus was a friend of mine," he snarled, reversing his grip on the weapon and smashing it against her again, this time causing her to sprawl across the floor.

_Fuck this_. She thought

Flipping to her feet she caught the next blow with her hands and sunk a front kick into his gut, as he doubled over she yanked the weapon free and smashed it across _**his**_ face. He went down like a tonne of bricks.

The resounding boom of a pistol firing reverberated through the empty entrance way and it took Kali a moment to realise that she was bleeding. A deep black hole had found its way through her chest, blood was welling up and pouring out of her as she collapsed to her knees.

The first shot had missed her heart by inches, but as the Russian walked steadily towards her she knew with certainty that the next shot wasn't going to miss. His eyes were focused on her one hundred percent. So much for settling up later.

Kali stared up at the hollow point of a gun barrel and felt a vague sense of relief that it would soon all be over, the nightmare of her existence would be finished.

She closed her eyes and listened to the echoing boom of a gun being fired…but she felt no pain, no sensation of any kind and as her eyes flickered open she watched the shocked expression cross the Russians face as his knees buckled beneath him and he smacked into the cool tiled floor.

Ana stood across the room, almost fully supported by the beam she leant against, a smoking gun in her hand. And as Kali watched that gun shifted until it was pointed towards the African American…

"No" Kali said as she hacked up blood, with difficulty she stood, using the assault rifle as a cane. Ana just looked at her, she had just killed one of her own people to protect a vampire! Kali couldn't let her live with killing two of her own people, something she was nearly about to do.

So with a cool detachment that came with knowing she was eliminating a threat Kali pointed the weapon down and squeezed. The recoil jerked her arm back, but it splattered the Nightstalker half way across the room, and it cost her absolutely nothing to do it.

"I didn't really like them anyway" Ana said softly

**2006 October 22****nd**

**11:13 pm**

For the second time in a day Kali was eagerly awaiting Ana's awakening, as fast as was vampirically possible Kali had moved the young human back to her bed and reinserted the morphine drip. She deserved some uninterrupted and pain free rest.

But the waiting was a torture in its own right, hands crossed behind her back Kali was pacing the small room back and forth, back and forth.

At first she was moving like a human, but as time lengthened and her frustration grew her movements became more rapid, to a human they would have looked jerky. Almost robotic except for the fact that each movement a human would have seen would have placed her at one side of the room, and then the other with no interim steps.

They simply wouldn't have been able to see the more rapid movements except for when she slowed to turn around and begin again. Like a movie, a movie was simply a rapid succession of still images that moved so quickly they appeared to be flawless motion.

To a vampires keener sight however a movie was only a succession of still images.

She was actually beginning to wear a tread line in the cool hard cement beneath her when Ana's voice startled her.

"So where do we go from here?"

Shocked Kali came to an instant halt, her attention riveted towards Ana. "How long have you been awake?"

A grin tweaked her lips as she replied, "Long enough to see you wearing a hole in the floor", she still lay virtually motionless on the bed, one arm trailing along the floor while her eyes gave Kali their complete attention.

Kali blushed slightly at that.

"But you didn't answer my question…where do we go from here?"

Kali just tilted her head to the side and frowned, she was unusually slow on the uptake, but guilt and anguish would do that to a person…she didn't want to consider the possibility that something stronger then lust was also dulling her senses.

Ana just smiled sweetly and elaborated, "I've had you tortured, you've tortured me, we've threatened each other, I've killed my own people, you've killed my people…and now for the second time in one day you were standing vigil over me as I slept…completely at your mercy and yet again I woke up in a better state then when I passed out"

_Oh. Right_.

"You're in love with me" Ana said like it was a simple fact, "Or in some serious lust since you've broken down in tears twice now because you hurt me" Kali was glad she didn't mention the near suicidal immolation that had taken place earlier, that would have made things even more awkward

"You were going to go sunbathing" Oh wait, there it was, that nice awkward moment she had thought they would avoid.

"How can I be in love with you" Kali blurted out, "I don't even know you"

"Hormones" was Ana's monosyllabic response

"I liked you more when you came off as a psycho bitch" Kali replied glumly, which caused Ana to laugh harshly, the motion causing her to feel the pain burning across her back and come to an abrupt halt.

"So again we come back to the original question, where do we go from here?" Ana asked again

Sighing Kali knelt beside the bed so that she and Ana were at eye level, "You can't go back to the Nightstalker's now", again Ana burst out in laughter, this time the vampire didn't even realise what was so amusing.

"Sorry" Ana murmured, "Forgot you didn't know. But after your little massacre the other night and what happened today I would now officially be the last Nightstalker in New York"

_Oh_. That made things a little easier in one sense.

"Now help me sit up" Ana commanded. Kali was sorely tempted to refuse, she didn't think Ana was in any condition to be moving around…but guilt was a powerful motivator

She cursed at herself each time Ana winced, but in a few moments she was sitting on the bed rather then lying across it. With blood stained sheets covering most of her body, and the gauze covering her back.

The human motioned for Kali to sit beside her, but she couldn't, she was across the small room in a heartbeat and nervously pacing a small circle again. Every time she looked at Ana all she could see was that beautiful ashy blonde hair cascading loosely down her shoulders, framing her face and the pulse at her neck.

God only knew how badly she wanted to taste Ana's blood.

"Ana…" but she was cut off,

"Don't say you're sorry" Ana interjected, "I don't care what you think you're apologising for, I don't want to hear it. I hurt you first, _then_ you hurt me. I chose to kill Anton" Kali assumed that was the Russian "for my own reasons. And like I said, I didn't really like those two anyway…in fact all of the Nightstalker's here in New York were thugs, none of them had the tact, subtlety or talent that you and I do"

Kali preened at the comment, and instantly loathed herself even more for it.

"You kill vampires and so do I…that makes us at the very least allies, the fact that you do it more effectively then I do is a bonus"

"Wait…" Kali said quickly, "What are you saying, you want to be partners? I'm a vampire"

"Blades a vampire and he works with humans" she replied

"Blade is only half vampire, he doesn't drink human blood. I do" The confession rang throughout the room but Ana didn't seem to care

"Vampire, Half vampire, it doesn't matter. You and I would make an incredible team," she stated simply while Kali hastily searched for a way to dissuade her. Kali was falling in love with Ana, she wouldn't be able to bare being around her for long with out the thirst coming to the surface, without being able to quench other even more physical thirsts as well.

Not to mention the little discrepancy in their agendas…Kali only killed other vampires to serve a higher purpose. Once she had what she wanted she wouldn't need to hunt them anymore.

"I like you as well Kali. I'm attracted to you, I don't know whether its love, but its something" Ana said

"You'd be a familiar in truth" Kali whispered, staring intently at Ana, trying to get her to back down, "By definition a familiar is a human who aids a vampire, who acts in their stead and protects them during daylight hours"

"So…?"

Ana's frank and uncaring attitude shocked Kali even more; she had never met a human hunter who would be so accepting of being called a familiar. To most hunters a familiar was lower then a vampire, worse somehow.

Kali was so desperately trying to find a convincing argument she didn't realise that she had stopped pacing so close to Ana until a pair of warm hands took a hold of her wrists.

Ana guided her down until she was kneeling in front of the human, and slowly Ana's mouth descended over her own. The warmth of human breath flowed across her lips in the moment before they kissed and Kali knew she had just given in. She couldn't think clearly around Ana, couldn't focus or reason and as their kissed deepened with probing tongues Kali's body moved on instinct, gracefully rising and pressing Ana back into the bed.

The hunter winced as her back lay against the cotton sheets, but again Kali swallowed that pain for her.

Her hands found Ana's and pushed them back into the wall so that she could straddle the human, so that she could take complete control as the sheets slid away from the body beneath her and Ana cried out in pleasure, writhing beneath Kali.

**2006 October 23****rd**

**New York**

**Several Hours Later**

"I know I said this the other night, but Kali? Is the goddess of death and destruction, it suits you too…" she paused for a moment and frowned while she glanced down, "it suits you too perfectly"

"What's your point?" Kali quizzed, her hands lightly fluttering along Ana's stomach, rising and falling as the young hunter drew breath, her pulse so steady and calm it was rhythmically soothing.

"My point" Ana said seriously, not being distracted by Kali's contented playful behaviour "is that its not your real name any more then Kara was"

"I still don't see you point" Kali replied purringly, whispering the words into Ana's ear, which was actually surprisingly difficult for her to do without moving.

She lay horizontally along her cot with Ana's nude but blissfully warm body wrapped around her own, Ana's head lightly resting on Kalis breasts. If Kali were human, a living breathing human the position would have been more painful for Ana, with each breath Kali would have been taking causing Ana to rise and fall, stretching the still somewhat bloody wounds that lashed Ana's back.

Kali knew it was only a matter of time before the guilt over her actions would begin to claw at her again. But in that moment, fresh in the after glow of their earlier activities Kali was at peace, content with the joy and pleasure radiating from her and the warmth that her human companion was seeping into her.

Ana looked up at Kali through her thick intoxicatingly gorgeous eyelashes as she began to talk. "I know I come off as a psychotically whacked out hunter at times, but call me old fashioned I don't do casual sex…and I like" she hesitated then, "I like to know who my lovers are"

It made a kind of sense to Kali, but in order to really answer Ana's question she was going to have to leave her cat like contentment behind, at least for the time being, and she didn't really want to do that…but as she looked down into Ana's almost molten gold eyes she realised Ana wasn't going to let it go. Kali was also trying to figure out when Ana's eyes went from being a delectable warm brown to resembling a molten metal. She'd have liked to convince herself that it was the intensity Ana was directing towards her, but she still had lingering doubts.

"Please?" Ana asked quietly, she was a woman use to being in charge and Kali could understand how much it cost her to add that 'please'.

Sighing for effect and more out of habit then necessity Kali began to sit up and felt a tinge of guilt as Ana winced while following suit. It was actually kind of remarkable that was all she did, her wounds were healing almost inhumanely fast.

Now that they were no longer basking in the afterglow modesty had overtaken the human and she drew the bloodstained sheets up over her breasts while Kali just beside her. Comfortable in her nudity.

"What you want Ana, the name I was given at birth when I still breathed and could walk in the light. That name wouldn't tell you who I am, that" it was her turn to search for an appropriate word, "that girl doesn't exist anymore, she was a foolish stupid human child and as people like her are want to do, she met a violent and painful death"

Kali had never before tried to vocalise the difference between herself and Hailey, why Hailey no longer existed and it was harder then she had expected. Hailey had been a child despite being eighteen, she was beautiful , shallow and terribly naïve, filled with the kind of arrogance and unjustified self confidence that all teenagers had. Walking around like they already knew everything. She might be physically identical to Hailey, but she was Kali through and through. Those first few brutally violent years of her new life had cut away everything but the primal , instinctual creature at her core, and from there she had been forged into someone new.

"The girl this body was before it died, nothing about her will tell you anything about me. She's dead, long dead and I'd prefer we left her that way"

Ana nodded briefly then, but what she said next was completely unexpected, "You despise who you were"

Kali just stared at her, hard.

"You despise her for being weak, for being childish and ignorant and self confident. Names have power and since you see her as weakness you don't want to invoke the memory of who you were, you don't want to give her any power over you"

"I'm weak enough as it is" Kali muttered, but Ana ignored her and continued

"And that's why when your remade, reforged" she was using Kali's own words "yourself you took the name of death incarnate, a powerful destructive force, a goddess of death" Ana paused for a moment, as if carefully considering her next words first "The name of a goddess" she paraphrased herself "that's awfully…arrogant"

Kali jerked her head towards Ana, giving her a hard look, But Ana held her own, staring the vampire down. Finally Kali conceded, broke eye contact and looked down into her lap. Perhaps Ana was right, taking the name of a goddess was awfully arrogant, perhaps more of Hailey still lived within her then she thought. She turned to look back at Ana and for a moment she just opened and closed her mouth trying to say something. To Ana's credit she didn't mention the uncanny resemblance to a goldfish.

When in doubt walk away. Now **that **was childish beyond words, yet she did it anyway. Kali simply stood up and walked out of the room, trusting that with Ana's current condition she wouldn't follow…and she didn't, but as Kali crossed the doors threshold Ana's voice trailed after her "I still want to know"

**2006 October 23****rd**

**New York**

"You've been avoiding me" a voice rang out through the room

Kali _had_ been avoiding Ana, and considering that Ana was more or less stuck on the bed unless she wanted to reopen her wounds it hadn't been too hard. What they'd done together had been almost intoxicating, addictive, with each touch of skin Kali had wanted her more and more, she had wanted her so badly that neither of them had noticed Ana bleeding again.

She'd passed out a little before dawn, and knowing that, having felt Ana's heart slow as she lay against the humans chest Kali had given in to desire, to impulse and drawn a line through blood.

Still warm, still flowing, Kali had drawn her finger through the open wound and tentatively held it to her mouth. Sweet mother of mercy she had almost bitten into Ana the next moment.

She now knew Ana's body intimately, every curve, every scar, every taste…that small taste of blood had compounded that intimate knowledge.

Then had come their…discussion…her original name, her life name meant so little to her, but it seemed to mean so much to Ana, but Kali just couldn't bring herself to give it her human friend. She knew Ana would ask again, probably in the next few moments, so the vampire found a way to distract the human…

"I tasted your blood while you slept" Kali admitted

Ana just looked at her like she was stupid, "I know" she replied. At Kali's shocked expression she continued, "Not to sound like I'm on an ego trip but I doubt you could have helped yourself"

"Now why would that sound like an ego trip" Kali spat back sarcastically

Ana just gave her a very patronising look.

"What happened last night shouldn't have happened," Kali wished her voice didn't sound so shaky as she said that. She was a harbinger of death; the blood on her hands was unimaginable after 23 years of torture and murder

"Don't start this again" her voice was almost whiny, annoyed. Kali snarled at her and snapped back,

"You don't understand!" her voice had dropped a few octaves and her entire body had shifted into an aggressive posture, "I'm not like you!"

"Yeah, yeah, you're a vampi-"

"No." her voice cut Ana off cold and she lost any contractions in her speech "I am not like you"

"I have no interest in killing vampires unless it suits my own agenda"

Finally Ana was beginning to pay attention, it was a strange thing to be noticed when she was about to drop a bomb shell that would destroy any kind of relationship they might have been forming, but when she was concentrating Ana's eyes became an intense honey brown.

Kali had to drop her gaze, if she stared down at Ana for too long she was going to loose her nerve, and she knew that if she didn't end what was happening between them fast she never would. She would forget her own goals, the importance of what she planned and be helplessly consumed by her.

"I am not a hunter, I am an…" she had to pause while she searched for the right word "an entrepreneur"

"I don't understand" Ana replied softly

Damn it! She needed to think clearly, and just the sound of Ana's voice was tearing her apart, she still couldn't look towards her, Kali had to stare intently at the wall beside her, unable to even look in Ana's general direction.

How could she explain who and what she was? What could she say that would end any confusion?

"Ana" she finally had to look at her, "Ana I was bitten more then twenty years ago"

"So?"

"So…I was bitten by Blade" that got a shocked reaction, "When he was little more then a child himself, when people still called him Eric. He bit me and drank from me, and then he ran, he left me to bleed out in an ally…but I came back"

It was common knowledge among vampires and hunters alike that aside from Blade himself, his bloodline was royally fucked.

"I drink blood because I was a vampire for nearly a decade before I even learned who or what Blade was, the serum that he takes is useless for some one who had been a vampire that long" She might as well get it all out, she wanted to explain and then run while she still had a good portion of the night on her side. Ana was listening, absorbing, and processing everything she was being told.

"And the cure? Also useless. It's only half as effective if a person has been turned for more then a year. At ten years its been shown to be completely ineffective. And I'd been a vampire for nearly eighteen years before it was even discovered"

"What's the point?" Ana asked, "Why are you telling me this? What does it mean?"

"It means," Kali said slowly "That I have to live with what I am, I have to survive as what I am. And nobody who fights their nature survives for long. It means that the thirst always wins"

"You feed from familiars" Ana said tentatively

"I haven't always…and even now I don't always" It was hard for Kali to admit that aloud, on rare occasions she did drink an innocent persons blood…in the past she had also drunken cloned human blood supplied by Leichan, one of the vampire houses. They believed that drinking human blood straight from the source was polluting the bloodlines, distilling them…they made cloned blood available to any vampire who wanted it, no questions asked.

"I'm a monster, just like every other vampire out there" She had to look Ana in the eyes as she said that, had to be convincing,

"You killed all of those Armayan vampires" Ana suggested desperately

"Like I said, I kill them when it suits my own agenda. The Armayans have something I want, now they know I'm serious" What she wanted from them was their vote now that they were a part of the conclave again. Kali would need seven of the twelve houses to support her in her bid to form a thirteenth house, but there was no need to let Ana know that. No reason she needed to know any of Kali's long term plans, because when she was done Ana would hate her. She had to.

Kali was physically close to Ana then, if she had bent her knees they would have brushed against the humans outstretched legs. "Goodbye Ana" she whispered and then faster then the human eye could track her hand reached out, in the space of an eternity her reaching hand contracted into a fist and smacked against the human.

A soft meaty sound followed as the force of the blow turned Ana, twisted her until she was face down in the sheets.

Before she had the chance to recover Kali stepped in and over her, using her superior strength to wrench Ana back from a horizontal position to a standing one, pressing her back into Kali until they were moulded together.

Kali could only imagine the expression on her lovers face as she roared back, snarling, hissing, screaming, pricks of pains lancing through her teeth as she used them to shear through Ana's throat.

Flesh, and then blood. Sweet, metallic, indescribable blood pouring down her, throat, down her shirt, it was so hot it almost burned her skin. And with a sense of finality she let the vacant and expressionless body drop to the floor, no longer supported by Kali who was cracking her shoulders back and roaring.

Her mouth open wide and teeth glistening with blood in the dim lights


End file.
